For English cricket, an Ashes tour down-under conjures up all kinds of images and emotions: there’s the abuse we get from Aussie fans sitting in Sydney’s infamous Bay 13, there are the painful memories of our batsmen having their heads knocked off at Perth, and who can forget the intimidating atmosphere on Boxing Day at the MCG when 90,000 Australians in canary yellow replica shirts start baying for English blood? An Ashes tour down under is every England cricketer’s Everest: emerge...
Suncream and Baggy Greens
When Tristan Haddow-Allen reluctantly moved to Australia, he took the opportunity to live his childhood dream of playing Sydney club cricket. In the first of a new series, he discovers not everything was quite as he expected ************************** “You must be the new bloke. We’ll call you Pom”. November, 2012 Such was my introduction to club cricket in Australia. The unpromising setting was the sunburnt upper-pitch of Morgan Power Reserve on the outskirts of Blacktown. Blacktown is so...
Flower puts England’s limited overs teams in the Wheelie Bin
‘The King of Spain’ is taking over as England’s ODI and T20 coach From the moment he gave up playing professional cricket, Ashley Giles has wanted to be England’s head coach. He did everything he needed to do. He cuddled up to the right people at the ECB and was almost immediately made a national selector. Now he’s been made England’s permanent ODI and T20 coach. So it’s pats on the back all round then? Well, forgive me if I don’t join the celebrations. Giles’ promotion is a...
Big mouth strikes again
If we weren’t doomed before … Swanny says he expects England to ‘dominate’ India’s spinners Graeme Swann is one of our favourite cricketers. We love him to death here at TFT. But sometimes, just sometimes, he’s a bit like that embarrassing girlfriend you used to have – you know, the quirky one you really fancied but none of your friends got. Sometimes you just wish they’d shut up. England have prepared really hard for this upcoming series against India. Gooch...
Cricket’s lost summer
I’m going to have to be straight with you. There are no two ways about it. In 2012, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award will not be won by a cricketer. This has hardly been a vintage summer for the public profile of our game. How different things were only a year ago, fresh from our imperious triumph over India. Newly crowned world champions – the orb still warm in Strauss’s palm – we were the pride of the nation and the envy of every other British sport. For a...
Club or Country?
If, like me, you listen to sports phone-ins on the radio, you can’t avoid die hard football fans going ballistic over the latest game-deciding refereeing decision, or having a moan about their manager’s ineptitude. It’s all part of the game. The thing that really strikes me however – apart from the fact that many of them hate their rivals as much as they love their own team – is that the overwhelming majority support their club first and England second. I suppose it’s all part of the tribalism...
